Kerala’s all-women pongala fest gives fresh hopes to homeless

Sunday, May 14, 2017,13:39 ISTBy anju AAA

Thiruvananthapuram | Lakh of bricks, abandoned by devotees after annual “Attukal Pongala”, one of world’s largest all-women religious event, will soon turn out to be construction material for homeless people here.

Women from various parts of the state and outside used to prepare ‘pongala’ (a mix of rice, jaggery and coconut) in fresh earthen or metal pots as an offering to Attukal Devi, the presiding deity of the temple, in makeshift brick stoves.

The ritual is performed by lining up on either side of the roads in the city and its suburbs. The line used to go up to seven km radius of the city.

The city corporation has come out with an innovative initiative to collect and reuse the bricks left over by devotees, to construct budget houses for poor.

Corporation sources here said, the devotes abandon several lakh of bricks after ‘pongala’ every year across the city and it would be used for the construction purpose from next year under the state government’s ambitious LIFE programme.

“Project LIFE” (Livelihood, Inclusion, Financial Empowerment) envisages to make Kerala a zero-homeless state by providing home for homeless.

Thiruvananthapuram mayor V K Prasanth said the project would not only help poor to realise their life-long dream of building a house of their own but also keep the city clean after the mass religious fest.

“The city will be full of waste and bricks after every pongala fest. Corporation staff used to launch a massive cleaning drive soon after the ritual is over,” Prasanth told PTI.

“But, usually, our men will remove waste other than bricks. From next year onwards, they will procure bricks from every nook and cranny of the city after pongala,” he said.

In all these years, bricks, abandoned by devotees, would be either taken away by local people or brick vendors who would collect and resell it.

Each brick costs Rs 20-30 in local market.

Detailing the Corporation’s housing plan, the Mayor said each beneficiary would be identified from 100 Corporation wards here and the procured bricks would be distributed among them.

“At least 4,000-5,000 bricks are needed for the construction of each budget house we envisage,” he said.

Besides bricks, an amount of Rs 3.50 lakh would also be given to each beneficiary as financial aid to build houses under the LIFE programme, he said.

According to official figures, 4.70 lakh families remain homeless in the entire state.

‘Pongala’, which used to be observed in February-March months every year, has been entered as “the largest gathering of women” in the Guinness Book of World records based on the 2.5 million turnout in 2009.